Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Hervé Constant artist

Hervé Constant was born to a Jewish mother in Casablanca, Morocco in 1951. He studied acting at the Conservatoire de Toulon, progressing to the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Techniques du Theatre in Paris, before switching to the visual arts, studying printmaking at the Beaux-Arts de Toulon. Constant initially moved to London from 1976 until 1980 when he returned temporarily to Toulon; settling in London in 1985, he continues to make and exhibit work in the UK and abroad.

Born: 1951 Casablanca, Morocco

Year of Migration to the UK: 1976

Other name/s: Hervé Constant


Biography

Mixed media artist Hervé Constant was born to a Jewish, Moroccan mother and a French father in Casablanca, Morocco in 1951. His parents separated when he was aged five and he was sent to live in an orphanage in Toulon, France for ten years, with his eldest brother. This was during the Algerian war, when racism towards Arabs was prevalent in French society and the orphanage taught Constant to be ashamed of his Moroccan origins and the colour of his mother's skin. His mother was murdered in the 1970s by her boyfriend. These painful experiences shaped some of his later works and he declared that ‘For me, the process of painting is like travelling a long tunnel, looking for the light […] My paintings are a product of my inner world, and of my past' (artist’s website). While working in a shop for car parts, he met the director of the students’ parents’ association who advised him to join the Conservatoire de Toulon, where he studied theatre acting from 1967 to 1970. He also joined a Flamenco touring group in 1967 and travelled to Germany, Belgium and across France. In 1971, he obtained a grant to further his studies at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Techniques du Theatre in Paris until 1973. During this time, he visited the UK and was so impressed by the theatres and art schools that he applied to a college in Hampstead; however he was refused a grant and so returned to France. Gradually he started drawing and painting and realised that these were the artforms he most enjoyed. Constant was very much inspired by artists with a powerful vision, such as Soutine, Goya, and Giacometti. He later observed that his art responded to his ‘first few years in life. The lack of warmth made me more withdrawn from my contemporaries. Reading, walking and travelling alone. I was solitary, wild and difficult, that was very much part of my upbringing’ (Ellison 2004).

Constant moved to London in 1976, showing with Fischer Fine Art (1978, founded by Viennese émigré, Harry Fischer), but returned to Toulon in 1980, where he remained until 1985. He studied etching and silkscreen techniques at the École des Beaux-Arts de Toulon (1980–83) and was awarded first prize at the Biennale de Nice 1984. Moving back to London in 1985, Constant set up a studio in Hackney from where he has shown across a range of UK galleries and institutions, including Magic & Mysticism, Jewish Museum, London (1999), and with Ben Uri, in a two-person show (1995) and in the International Jewish Artist of the Year Award (IJAYA, 2004). More recently his work has featured in Glorious Disgust at Cardiff Metropolitan University (February-April 2018).

Constant's earlier paintings focused on the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. He had started to read about other French symbolist poets of the time, such as Baudelaire and Verlaine, and discovered that they were all fascinated by Kabbalah (a Jewish mystical tradition) and the occult. His work thus began reflecting his interest in mysticism, religion, numerology and tarot. Another important theme in his art is that of 'communication', or rather non-communication, as exemplified by his piece entitled Brouhaha or Human Tapestry at MB, depicting workers in their booths, in front of computers and microphones. Constant’s work is both abstract and representational. Besides painting, he also makes photographs and, from 2004, he has produced films which he considers to be ‘like paintings coming alive’ (Hartigan 2001). Constant has also experimented with the ancient encaustic technique – a mixture of oil and paint, mixed with wax and dammar varnish, sound installlations and artist's books. Hervé Constant continues to live and work in London, England. His work is represented in the UK public domain in the Ben Uri Collection and in 2020 his work featured in Ben Uri's online exhibition Interstices - Discovering the Ben Uri Collection Guest curated by René Gimpel.

Related books

  • Hervé Constant and Madelyn Freeman, Hervé Constant: Paintings, Prints, Photographs (2021)
  • Sarah MacDougall ed., Interstices - Discovering the Ben Uri Collection Guest curated by René Gimpel (London: Ben Uri Gallery, 2020), pp. 44-45
  • Emmanuel Cooper, 'Art not War', Tribune, 14 February 2003, p. 29
  • Julia Weiner, 'Painting Blues', Jewish Chronicle, 20 August 1999, p. 29
  • Julia Weiner, 'Work in Progress', Jewish Chronicle, 25 July 1997, p. 45
  • 'Herve Constant on Masaccio's Adam and Eve Banished from Paradise', The Guardian, 5 September 1995, p. 11

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Beaux-Arts de Toulon, France (student)
  • Conservatoire de Toulon, France (student)
  • Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Techniques du Theatre, Paris (student)

Related web links

Selected exhibitions

  • Interstices - Discovering the Ben Uri Collection, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum, London (2020)
  • Glorious Disgust, Cardiff Metropolitan University (2018)
  • GX Gallery, Camberwell, London (2018)
  • GX Gallery, Camberwell, London, (2015)
  • Scarlet Maguire Gallery, London (2007)
  • EAST 05, Norwich Art Gallery, selected by Gustav Metzger (2005)
  • IJAYA, Ben Uri Gallery and Museum (2004)
  • Art and War, group exhibition, Conway Hall, London (2003)
  • Herve Constant and Felix Baudenbacher, Gallery 5a, London (2003)
  • Magic & Mysticism, group exhibition, Jewish Museum, London (1999)
  • Board Games, group exhibition, The City Art Gallery, Leicester (1997)
  • Solo exhibition, Alliance Française de Londres, London (1996)
  • Images of the Tarot, Tricycle Gallery, London (1995)
  • ‘As Above ... So Below’: Recent Paintings by Hervé Constant and Yair Meshoulam, Ben Uri Gallery (1995)
  • The Word is Art, group exhibition, The Alsager Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent (1995)
  • Small Mansion Arts Centre, Gunnersbury Park, London (1992)
  • The Poet in Paint, group exhibition, Plymouth Arts Centre (1991)
  • Wolverhampton Artists Group, Eagle Works, England (1990)
  • Central Space Gallery, London (1988)
  • Group exhibition, Galerie Matisse, French Institute, London (1987)
  • Kingsgate Gallery, London (1987)
  • Group exhibition, Fischer Fine Art Gallery, London (1978)
  • Ways of Telling, Oriel Mostyn, Wales (1989)
  • The Projection Room, Liverpool Biennial (2006)
  Hervé Constant
   
Ben Uri collection

Hervé Constant in the Ben Uri collection

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Hervé Constant]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Hervé Constant] in the Ben Uri Library